332 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



say, 10 per cent of laboratory facilities in many places to be available for 

 military research under proper circumstances. If this were done it would 

 accomplish a threefold purpose. It would acquaint the military with scien- 

 tific developments of potential military significance at an early stage; it 

 would give the military and the civilians experience in working together; 

 and it would lay the basis for the expansion of the facilities devoted to mili- 

 tary problems if that should become necessary. For this to take place, how- 

 ever, it is essential that the Services work out an acceptable flexible research 

 and development contract and administer it intelligently. 



The device of contracting introduces a flexibility impossible in the case of 

 Service-operated laboratories. Operations are not confined to a particular 

 geographical area or to particular groups of people. If one group is un- 

 successful in pursuing a lead, it may be diverted to other work or dropped 

 while the original problem is turned over to another group with a different 

 background and facilities. New groups can be used for limited periods be- 

 cause of special qualifications without an implication of continuing employ- 

 ment, and frequently better men can be had than could be obtained on a 

 basis of direct employment by the Government. 



OSRD was a unique organization. Successful in its operations, the prin- 

 cipal conclusion from its experience is that there should never be need for 

 another like it. There were many organizational anomalies, but an all- 

 pervading sense of the importance of the task and the urgency of its com- 

 pletion. The most remarkable thing about OSRD was the men associated 

 with it. Whether they would have functioned as well in time of peace may 

 be open to question, but from their performance in OSRD, it is possible 

 that they would have done as well at any other job they undertook during 

 the war. The history of OSRD is not in fact the story of an organization. 

 Rather it is the story of a group of highly gifted, patriotic men, who in time 

 of grave national emergency saw a job which needed to be done, sought 

 and received authority to do it, and then carried it through in a manner 

 which was successful beyond even their fondest dreams. While some of 

 their trials and tribulations point the way to future improvements, and the 

 record shows mistakes which they made, the statement of the Appropriations 

 Committee of the House of Representatives on October 17, 1945, with which 

 this volume opened, is an appropriate one with which to close it: 



The contribution which it (OSRD) has made to the winning of the war is in- 

 estimable. Without such contribution, it is safe to say that victory still would 

 await achievement. ... To its distinguished and internationally known head, 

 Dr. Vannevar Bush, and the staff of great scientists he gathered around him to 

 aid in the development of new weapons, the Nation owes much. 



